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Removing Return Addresses

Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007 and 2010. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Removing Return Addresses.

In other issues of WordTips you learn how to insert a graphic in a return address for creating envelopes or for creating labels. It seems that learning how to remove those special return addresses has resulted in the subject for another tip—this tip.

How you go about removing a return address that contains a graphic depends exactly on how it was created in the first place. There are a couple of things to try, each of which may result in the offending graphic being removed. The first thing to try is to simply try to delete the return address. You do this by following these steps:

Display the Mailings tab of the ribbon.

Click the Envelopes tool in the Create group. Word displays the Envelopes tab of the Envelopes and Labels dialog box. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Envelopes tab of the Envelopes and Labels dialog box.

Click in the Return Address area and delete everything there. For good measure, replace the contents with a single space.

Print your envelopes as normal. The return address should be gone.

If you simply want to remove the return address temporarily, you could click on the Omit check box in step 3. The contents of the return address are retained, but it should not print.

If this doesn't work, take a look in the Word options for the return address stored there. You can get to it and get rid of it by following these steps:

Display the Word Options dialog box. (In Word 2007 click the Office button and then click Word Options. In Word 2010 display the File tab of the ribbon and then click Options.)

Click Advanced at the left side of the dialog box.

Scroll down through the options until you see the General Options section. (See Figure 2.)

Figure 2. The general options of the Word Options dialog box.

Click in the Mailing Address area and delete everything there.

Click on OK to close the Word Options dialog box.

Try to print your envelopes. The return address should not show up in the Envelopes and Labels dialog box.

Finally, there is one other place to look if you still cannot get rid of the return address. Word allows you to define special building blocks that print as part of your return address. These entries normally have the names EnvelopeExtra1 and EnvelopeExtra2. To get rid of them, follow these steps:

Display the Insert tab of the ribbon.

Click the Quick Parts tool (in the Text group) and then click Building Blocks Organizer. Word displays the Building Blocks Organizer.

Click the label at the top of the Name column. The building blocks should now be listed in alphabetical order.

Scroll through the list of building blocks, looking for items such as EnvelopeExtra1 or EnvelopeExtra2. If you find one, select it.

Click on the Delete button.

Look for any other similarly named building blocks, repeating steps 4 and 5 as needed.

Click on the Close button.

Try to print your envelopes. The return address should not show up in the Envelopes and Labels dialog box.

For more information on the special EnvelopeExtra1 AutoText entry, see this page:

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (10176) applies to Microsoft Word 2007 and 2010. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Removing Return Addresses.

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Comments for this tip:

Pattie16 Dec 2014, 11:56

In Word 2010Click on the "File" tabClick on the "Options" buttonClick on the "Advanced" buttonScroll all the way down to "General" heading - high-light and delete the information in "Mailing Address" text box.Click "OK" button to save

The directions above got us close...

Amy07 Aug 2014, 15:45

Thank you, Sarah, for the correction. It makes sense, now.

m jones28 Apr 2014, 17:28

thank you very much for your assistance. i had called my ISC people ant they were not helpful. i do appreciate the information.

CRogers14 Feb 2014, 16:27

I have Microsoft Word 2013 and my mailing address keeps printing in the return address spot and I cannot figure out how to fix it. Any suggestions?

Sarah11 Oct 2013, 15:04

I think Figure 2 needs to be updated.

The directions say:

Click Advanced at the left side of the dialog box.Scroll down through the options until you see the General Options section. (See Figure 2.)

Instead, you're showing where the General option is selected on the left side, NOT where Advanced is selected and then scrolled down to the General Options SECTION of the advanced tab.

This had me very confused.

Pat09 Oct 2012, 11:47

Thank you so much. I have been fretting about this for a very long time.

Sherry24 Feb 2012, 15:50

Thank you so much, this worked perfectly!

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